Movie Reviews : ‘Buddha’: Terminal Bliss

When the editor of Tricycle, the Buddhist Review, one of the few journalists allowed on the set of “Little Buddha,” the new Bernardo Bertolucci film, wrote about her experience, one question continued to trouble her. What was the word Little doing in the title?

None of the filmmakers, it turned out, could give her a satisfactory answer, but now that the picture itself is here, the reason seems obvious. Despite its illustrious pedigree, “Little Buddha” turns out to have the sensibility of a children’s film, the most elaborate and expensive “Afterschool Special” ever to make it to the big screen.

Being a children’s film, of course, is not necessarily a negative thing, and aspects of “Little Buddha” do linger pleasantly in the memory. But what lingers as well is the suspicion that this is a children’s film at least partly by default, the product of too much goofy New Age reverence and too little nuance and sophistication.

Those who remember such Bertolucci films as “The Conformist” and “Last Tango in Paris” may be surprised at this turn in his career, but those pictures are deep in the director’s past. More recently we’ve seen the likes of “The Last Emperor,” which, its many Oscars notwithstanding, is best remembered for how everything looked, not for what anyone said.

In fact, especially when, as here, Bertolucci collaborates with Vittorio Storaro, one of the world’s preeminent cinematographers, the director has a tendency to become a prisoner of his own particular gift for luscious images, to assume that the dramatic side of things will more or less take care of itself.

Story, however, can be neglected only at great risk, especially when two parallel tales are being told. The first begins in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in modern-day Bhutan, where Lama Norbu (Chinese actor Ying Ruocheng) gets a telegram he’s been waiting for for nine years, a message that soon puts him on a jet headed for Seattle.

Though all Buddhists believe in reincarnation, only Tibetan Buddhists believe that specific people, invariably great teachers, can be identified in their next incarnation. And Lama Norbu has reason to believe that his own teacher, admittedly a man with a hell of a sense of humor, has been reincarnated as an 8-year-old American named Jesse Konrad (newcomer Alex Wiesendanger).

Not surprisingly nonplussed by this news are Jesse’s parents, Lisa (Bridget Fonda) and Dean (singer Chris Isaak), a sprightly young couple who don’t quite know what to make of all these robed and shaven monks appearing suddenly in their lives.

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They don’t object, however, when Lama Norbu gives Jesse a child’s life of the Buddha. This little book forms the basis of “Little Buddha’s” second narrative strand, a film-within-a-film set in Asia 2,500 years ago that details how the fun-loving Prince Siddhartha transformed himself into a great spiritual being.

Though it plays at times like an infomercial on Eastern religions, this half of “Little Buddha” is the most successful. For one thing, this is where Storaro’s photography and James Acheson’s production and costume design are at their best, making good use of the never-before-seen streets of Bhutan and creating opulent set pieces.

And though eyebrows and even entire faces were raised when it was announced that Keanu Reeves was going to play Siddhartha, in fact, he does what the part calls for as the golden youth shielded from misery and death who takes the path to enlightenment. Hewing closely to traditional texts, this part of “Little Buddha” comes off closest to the fable quality the filmmakers were apparently after.

In the modern half, however, the lack of texture that is the film’s weakest link is most evident. The Mark Peploe and Rudy Wurlitzer plot, from a story by the director, seems determined to take the drama out of every situation, while the accompanying dialogue is invariably hollow and unconvincing.

Being blissed out may be an enviable state for a human being, but it is not necessary the best one for a film.

* MPAA rating: PG for “some disturbing images.” Times guidelines: It includes brief shots of a leper and a holy man with a weight hanging from his tongue.

‘Little Buddha’

Keanu Reeves: Prince Siddhartha

Chris Isaak: Dean Konrad

Bridget Fonda: Lisa Konrad

Alex Wiesendanger: Jesse Konrad

Ying Ruocheng: Lama Norbu

Released by Miramax Films. Director Bernardo Bertolucci. Producer Jeremy Thomas. Screenplay Mark Peploe and Rudy Wurlitzer from a story by Bernardo Bertolucci. Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. Editor Pietro Scalia. Costumes James Acheson. Music Ryuichi Sakamoto. Production design James Acheson. Sound Ivan Sharrock. Running time: 2 hours, 3 minutes.

* In limited release in Southern California.